An Oast House is a building used to dry fresh hops before they are sent to the brewers, to be used for flavouring beer. A traditional Oast House consists of the 'oast' and the 'stowage'. The oast was a kiln, with a plenum chamber fired by charcoal at ground floor and the drying floor directly above. The steep pitched roof channelled the hot air through the hops to the top. The stowage, was the barn section, it had a cooling floor and press at first floor and storage area at ground floor. Read more Link

The Museum of Kent Life is an open air museum, based around an original farmstead, called Sandling Farm. One of the original buildings is an 19th century oast house, which is used to demonstrate hop drying during the September hop-picking season. There are also two farm houses and farmyard buildings.

A number of buildings have been saved from destruction and reconstructed at the site. These include hopper huts, thatched barn, granary, chapel, village hall, cottages, and another farmhouse.